<p>hey what do you think my chances are for some top universities?</p>
<p>SAT:
verbal - 620
math - 720
writing - 790 (12 essay)
SAT II: American History - 690, Biology M 680 (retake), and math II.
GPA after 11th grade = 4.8 4.9 weighted
Top 10% of class (approx. 800-900 students) maybe top 5%
5 AP's after end of junior year (European History - 4) Just finished, APUSH, English Language and comp., psychology (taking micro-economics and computer science A) - will be 11 after senior year
All honors classes
2 years of Spanish
3 years of journalism (newspaper)
Clubs: Mu Alpha Theta - 2 years
National Honor Society - 1 year
English Honor Society - 1 year
EC: Badminton - 3 years
Tour Guide/Historian at Museum at least 160 Hours CS
Teen Court Juror - 20 Hours CS
Class of '07 Board Member</p>
<p>Looking at Penn, Dartmouth, Cornell, Duke, Tufts - thoughts?</p>
<p>They are all reaches. Below average SATs for all, easy APs, below average ECs. Cornell and Tufts seem like the only maybe schools but I'd have to say I seem them as unlikely.</p>
<p>If you can get your SAT scores up to about 1430 ish then I'd say Tufts is a possibility....
if you're really interested in Tufts admissions info 8 kids from my school applied and i know all of their stats so i can give you some advice but yeah.</p>
<p>Let me get this straight--your weighted GPA is 4.8 to 4.9 and you don't even know if you are in the top 5% of your class?</p>
<p>Since the maximum possible is 5.0 if you took nothing but honors classes (which you claim you have up to this point), I have to believe your unweighted GPA is 3.95 or so, which means you should be in the top 2% of your class. Also that SAT writing score of 790 is extremely impressive.</p>
<p>Now for the bad news: Your 2 score SAT is 1340 (620/720)
Average SAT and GPA:
Univ of Penn--1412 (694/718) and 3.84 UW
Dartmouth--1432 (713/719) and 3.73 UW
Cornell--1390 (680/710) and about 3.67 UW
Duke--1430 (705/725) and about 3.82 UW
Tufts--1380 (685/695) and about 3.63 UW</p>
<p>On the positive side, your AP scores should be 4s and hopefully some 5s (I would expect a 5 in English comp and lit)--also you have two SAT IIs close to 700--and your last one is your best subject--and so should be over 700.</p>
<p>Personally, I rate your chances higher than some of the others above since the 790 writing score and the 3.95 UW GPA will offset to a degree the lower SAT score in critical reading (620) which is the one major drawback. You need real ECs, however, not just membership in honor societies where you don't do anything but submit your grades.</p>
<p>You need to get involved in a group that actually accomplishes something. And you need to show leadership in this group. And retake that reading SAT. Most east coast schools (all the Ivies, I believe) allow you to take the best score from multiple sittings of the SAT. Which means you already have the 720 Math and 790 writing kind of locked in--so go back and really concentrate on reading, reading, and more reading comprehension--and the speed necessary to do this well under test conditions.</p>
<p>Presuming you can't raise that reading SAT and that you don't get involved in a leadership/service EC--your odds are really quite poor--maybe 40-50% at Tufts, and 10-30% at the others. </p>
<p>But if you get the reading SAT up to something like 680+ and get involved in a real EC, then I rate your chances at 75% at Tufts and Cornell, 60% at Dartmouth, 50% at Duke, and 40% at Penn.</p>
<p>Calcruzer, your numbers are OLD. This year's average SAT at Dartmouth was 1490. 50% chance???? Duke is harder to get into than Dartmouth??? Are you aware this will be the hardest year in history to get into top colleges? Also, writing was not even being considered at most ivies this year, do you know that they will be next? Maybe you need to cruz the E Coast for a reality check!</p>
<p>Yes, my numbers are from 2005--so what?--do I need to put a disclaimer on every single post---geesz--get off my case. In general, the numbers don't change that much (although in this case, apparently Dartmouth's changed a bit). Sorry if I don't have the time to go to every single college's website and pull off their numbers for 2006--but I have a regular job and a regular family and most colleges haven't even posted their numbers for 2006--so if Dartmouth has, they are the exception--not the rule. Also, I'm posting the registered class numbers, not the application numbers--which I would guess the 1490 number Dartmouth put out this year would reflect--since they haven't even registered the incoming year's class--so there will be a discrepancy between your numbers and my numbers for that reason. </p>
<p>In case you haven't noticed, almost every single college computes the GPA and SAT differently anyway--some use freshman year's grades, some don't; some take the first semester of senior year into account, some don't; some cap grades, some don't; some use best SAT scores from multiple sittings, some only take best single sitting; some take all the SAT IIs into account, some (like the UCs only take the best two);--some compute in the AP scores, some don't; some count all honors courses, some don't;--so if you think that you have the absolute formula for where someone is or isn't going to be admitted--I say you are living in delusion-ville. </p>
<p>And I agree with your comment about Duke being tougher than Dartmouth to get into--I should have said Dartmouth 50%, Duke 60%. But you know when you post 200 messages and you are posting at 11 PM at night after a long day of work, occasionally an error will happen. My apologies.</p>
<p>In the meantime, I'll give my numbers (yes 2005 numbers, even though that is soooooooooooo long ago I'm sure they have almost NO relevance--yeah, right)--and I'll give my opinions on admission chances. And you can give yours, okay? Last time I checked, everyone on here is doing so voluntarily to try to help out these students.</p>
<p>P.S. As far as knowing the east coast, I lived in Maryland for 4 years, my wife is from New Jersey and I have already been to the east coast at least 60 times in the past 6 years--either for business or pleasure trips--including visiting Dartmouth as recently as mid-April. I even write a column about travelling the US (including the east coast) for another site. So I hardly think I'm ignorant about the east coast.</p>
<p>I want to apologize for the tone of this last e-mail. </p>
<p>While, I still believe posting 2005 data in an effort to help people is acceptable, based upon what suze posted, she was just trying to get the most valid data for this individual--and it was wrong of me to jump all over her for that.</p>
<p>The point is that at the top schools the stakes just keep going up and will for a few more years. People who could have easily gotten into schools 4 or 5 years ago are shut out now. Every ivy has taken a smaller percentage of applicants for each of the past few years whereas it had been steady before. The single digit acceptance % is hitting more schools. This year was bad, next will be a horror show. The whole holistic, they'll look past your 680 has become a joke. Serious contenders for the top schools, without a hook, will have a 2250 plus, be in the top 5% and have really good ECs.</p>